Music and Movies The
Beastie Boys Paul’s Boutique (Capitol Records) is my absolute favorite
album of theirs. It’s got a great flow, groove and deep bass too rarely
seen in modern albums, and Rick Rubin’s exceptional recording skills
make it a great disk to for listening. The Sunfire amp’s powerful ease
of reproduction had me cranking this disc to obscene levels, where the
TGA held tight, giving me all the power I could need. During “High
Plains Drifter,” the bass was powerfully displayed, shaking the metal
sculptures on my wall to the point that I have since removed them from
that room. During “Car Thief,” the bass simply slammed me. Comparing
the voltage source vs. current source outputs for the front two
speakers, the current source outputs offered a less edgy top end to the
sound, but I found the air and liveliness of the lower end to be better
on the voltage source for this track. I switched between them several
times with different songs and seemed to always feel the same. On
“Johnny Royal,” the bass was fuller. Though it didn’t seem to go as
deep with the voltage source compared to the current source, I found
this is a plus, as it allows you to tailor the sound of the amp to your
listening tastes, speakers and room. “Hey Ladies” had excellent air
while maintaining the dynamics this song needs. The bells had an ease
and naturalness to them I greatly appreciated. To take it to the next
level, I bi-amped the front speakers with the front channel powering
the highs via the current source and the second channel’s voltage
source powering the lower end. Though this required two sets of
(ideally) identical wire, this was the best of both worlds, offering
the best sound I got from this amp, with smooth highs and powerful
tight bass. This does require using the RCA connections to the amp to
allow daisy-chaining the multiple channels, but the sonics offered by
this set-up were worth the extra cabling to my ears.

I
was so happy with the powerful presentation of this amplifier that I
went to some old school funk to further test it. Parliament’s
Mothership Connection (Mercury) is an amazingly fun album, and if you
don’t own it, you owe it to yourself to buy it. Its deep grooves and
powerful vocals are unmatched and the TGA 7400 was able to play this
album at the levels it deserves. “Give Up The Funk (Tear The Roof Off
The Sucker)” is not only one of the best funk songs of all time, but
also a great test of gear as it displays the numerous vocals and deep
bass grooves ever present in this album. The TGA did a great job
powering the bass while keeping the voices clear. The synthesizer flew
into and out of the soundstage and, once again, I found myself
listening at higher than normal levels due to this amp’s ease of
reproduction. “Handcuffs” showed this amplifier’s ability to handle
complex passages and widely disparate range with ease. “P. Funk (Wants
To Get Funked Up)” further demonstrated this amp’s ability to handle
dynamics and deep bass while maintaining smooth clarity of vocals.
Though I often found myself playing this album at very high listening
levels, the amp never showed signs of distortion.

Nine Inch Nails’ The Downward Spiral (Interscope Records) is an old
favorite industrial album of mine, and now it is available on SACD, so
to further push this amp to its limits, I cued it up. NIN’s older
material can be trying on an amplifier, as the music is extremely
complex. Subtle backgrounds often connect entire songs, with huge
swings in intensity interspersed with quiet, subtle and often musical
interludes. The second song of the disk, “Piggy,” showed full bass and
kept vocals clear while easily handling the wide dynamics of the piece.
Even with all channels producing the extreme volumes this disc
deserves, the Theater Grand Amplifier showed no signs of weakness.
There was a little less detail in the more complicated passages than
I’ve heard in higher-end amplifiers, but the extreme dynamics and
thunderous bass afforded me by this amp were simply amazing, and the
transitions from ear-splitting levels to quiet passages were
impressive. As the rim shots of the drums came in, the attack was
startling, while maintaining clarity not often found at this volume
level. “Hurt” is my favorite song on this album, and the TGA kept me
enthralled with its ease of reproduction at extreme listening levels
while maintaining good separation and filling the room with a massive
soundstage.

Action movies truly need dynamics for impact, so I cued up “Mission
Impossible: III” (Paramount Home Entertainment) on HD DVD to further
test this amp. It didn’t fail to impress me. The dynamics this
amplifier is capable of producing are amazing, even with my
power-hungry Canton Vento speakers. During the mission in Berlin, the
amp easily reproduced the subtlety of small details, such as the
dropping of the grenade and the ever-present background music, while
handling the intense dynamics of guns and explosions throughout the
scene. Voices were easily discerned and had a fullness and depth not
often heard in theater systems. Much of this movie’s soundtrack
contains deep musical bass, and the Theater Grand Amplifier 7400 had no
trouble with it. The helicopter chase scene not only showed the power
of this amp, but also its ability to transition between speakers. I
found the dynamics from this amplifier impressive, to say the least. It
likes to rock and does so well. The rumble when Owen Davian (Philip
Seymour Hoffman) is held outside the flying jet shook my home, while
the sounds of small items bouncing around the cabin of the plane
remained clear and well-placed. The slightly forward sound and amazing
dynamics of this amp made movies highly enjoyable to listen to and
truly lifelike.

Tori Amos has been one of my longstanding musical loves, and her
enthusiasm for my home state of Florida left her to finish the
Scarlet’s Walk tour at the Sound Advice Amphitheater in West Palm,
where she recorded her concert DVD Welcome to Sunny Florida. Tori has
the ability to play softly and delicately and to rock out as well. Her
keyboards and Bosendorfer piano can truly test the merits of any
system, and I found excellent handling of the dynamics she is known
for, while the bass stayed full and deep. With these challenging
musical passages, the Sunfire TGA 7400 lacked some of the separation my
reference amps exhibit, but made for an exciting and lively recreation
of the concert. “Crucify” filled my room with Tori’s voice and its
echoes gave a “being there” feel to the song. Her voice was sharp, with
just the slightest sibilance to it. The drums that start out the song
“Cornflake Girl” had a solid kick to them and, as Tori ramped up the
song, the bass of her piano had a wonderful resonance. Transitions were
fast and well handled, allowing near silence to quickly explode into
musical intensity. The sound character stayed the same at low to
moderate listening levels, as well as at extremely high volumes. “Bells
for Her” showed the heft I am used to from Tori’s piano, and the
stand-up bass resonated through my room while the shaker was placed to
the left, just where it would seem to be from the stage set-up. The
lone piano notes at the start of “Leather” seem to float in the air,
while Tori’s voice starts filling the room with her eerie staccato.
“Precious Things” is one of Tori’s more aggressive songs, and this
DVD’s version is a great example of it. I cranked up the volume to the
98 decibel range and was glad to see the TGA had no problems
maintaining its composure. The powerful bass of her Bosendorfer piano
was well articulated, even at these listening levels, while her voice
managed to send chills down my spine. The bass lacked some of the
absolute authority I find in some higher-end amplifiers, but the TGA
7400’s infallible handling of dynamics more than made up for this to my
ears. After several hours beating this amp up with loud, complicated
multi-channel playback, it was only warm to the touch.